Governor asking court to remove prison limits

Federal oversight of California's prisons stems from class-action lawsuits filed by prison inmates in 1991 and 2001 alleging that mental health services and general health care services in the state prison system were unconstitutional.

Citing successful reforms and the expenditure of billions of dollars, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday proclaimed California’s prison crisis over and said it’s time for the federal government to remove its cap on the state prison population and end its oversight of the prison system’s mental health services.

“It is now time to return the control of our prison system to California,” Brown said in a Sacramento press conference. “There’s no question that there were big problems in California prisons,” he said. “…But after decades of work, the job is now complete.”

The governor’s announcement came just hours after the state filed papers in federal court Monday evening asserting that “the overcrowding and health care conditions” that led to federal intervention “are now a distant memory.” Federal oversight stems from class-action lawsuits filed by prison inmates in 1991 and 2001 alleging that mental health services and general health care services in the state prison system were unconstitutional.

In 2007, those cases were consolidated under a three-judge panel, which ruled that overcrowding in the prison system is the primary cause of poor medical and mental health care in the state prison system. For years now, the prison system’s medical services have been supervised by a federal receiver while the system’s mental health care has been under what’s known as a special master.

But even with independent supervision, the three-judge panel said California wasn’t doing enough to improve the situation in its prisons. In 2009, the panel ordered the state to reduce the prison population.

Monday was the deadline for the state to submit plans describing how it would meet the federal government’s cap on the prison population. The state did submit a plan to release some prisoners — “under protest,” as Brown said — but also noted that it already has “reduced its prison population by more than 43,000 inmates since 2006″ and “has also made tremendous improvements to the prison medical and mental health care systems, and eliminated all constitutional systemic deficiencies in the provision of care to inmates.”

“Accordingly,” the state said, “rather than force further population reductions, the Court should vacate the population cap and end this three-judge court proceeding.” In a separate filing, the state called for the removal of the special master overseeing the prison system’s mental health services.

The fate of the state prison system is going to be decided in federal court, but Brown on Tuesday took his case to the people, scheduling press conferences in Sacramento and Los Angeles to tout advances made in the prison system.

Among the success stories Brown cited was his prison realignment program, which shifted much of the responsibility for housing and supervising convicts that would have previously been sent state prison, to county jails. The program has been controversial, and some claim that is not only has strained local resources but also led to the release of dangerous inmates who have, in turn, caused crime rates to jump in parts of the state.

“In terms of realignment,” Brown said, “I reject the notion that this has contributed to anything but the public interest. People commit crimes in the local community, and they are now, to a greater degree, being supervised, being rehabilitated or being incarcerated locally. We’re transferring billions of dollars to achieve that goal. I think it’s very sound.”

In Orange County, sheriff’s officials have been seeing the population in the county jails increase steadily under realignment. From October 2011 to September 2012, more than 2,200 prisoners from state prison were released and placed in the supervision of Orange County probation officials. The average sentence of someone headed to county jail also has increased, from 113 days last year to 165.

Brown also said that the state has made tremendous improvements to the prison system’s medical and mental health care services

“Most of the people in prison get far better care for mental health problems or their physical well-being in prison that they’ll get once they’re released on the streets,” the governor said.

He continued: “Our prisons are not overcrowded. I know that there’s a design capacity, but that’s a somewhat arbitrary figure. The experts that not only work here in California, but whom we’ve hired to look at our system, advise me that our system is meeting the highest standards of health care and mental health care. And for that reason, there’s no justification for the federal court to say you can only hold a certain number of people in the prisons.”

Prison inmates and advocates for greater reform in the prison system don’t agree with the governor’s assessment. Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a group describing itself as “a broad-based coalition of over 40 organizations seeking to CURB prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison and the number of prisons in the state,” said a press release Tuesday that the state’s new filings are just another attempt “by the Brown Administration to evade the Court’s order to reduce the prison population. In September, the Court rejected Brown’s attempt to raise the population cap to 145%.”

The organization also noted that “California’s prisons currently hold 133,000 in space that was intended for 80,000.”

“If people’s lives weren’t at stake, claiming that caging one and a half times the people our prisons were built to hold isn’t overcrowding would be laughable. But this isn’t laughable, it’s morally outrageous,” said Diana Zuñiga, field organizer for Californians United for a Responsible Budget, in a prepared statement. “There are clear, safe ways to bring people back to our communities that would increase public safety and free more funding for social services and the education system the Governor claims to value so much. It’s time for this administration to stop dragging it’s feet and make the kind of change Californians have been demanding for years.”

Jeffrey Callison, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in an email, “We don’t know when the court will rule. It’s at the court’s discretion.”

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.